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During the 1880's there was a fashion for political music hall songs, they were usually conservative in stance and were really used as an effective way of generating audience participation, via catchy chorus lines, rather than a means of swaying political opinions. This song refers to the San Stefano Treaty that concluded the war between the Ottoman Empire and Russia (1877 - 78), recognising the independence of Serbia, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bulgaria. In the illustration Russia is depicted as a Bear and the British Empire as a Lion.